


Attempts

by ComposeHazel



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Taang Week 2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:07:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26577280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComposeHazel/pseuds/ComposeHazel
Relationships: Aang/Toph Beifong
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Attempts

_“Take my hand”_

It shouldn’t have surprised her how this celebration turned out. They’re always fleeing away. If they hadn’t showed up, the gAang would have completely forgotten that they are still in the middle of the war. If they weren’t, she would have stayed being a dutiful noble daughter. “Or ran away completely and never return,” she mused. Maybe then she would still meet the boy in the iceberg, and had at least have the courtesy to dance with her. It’s not like she was upset, really. 

It reminded her somehow the freedom she chases and received as she joined with her friends. So, here she was inside her earth tent, as she tried to be comforted again with the soothing sounds of the forest ground every time she went to sleep. Moments before, she tried to tune in the vibrations among the cheers of the fire nation students. They’re just too light and too fast. The dance between Katara and Aang ended with an effortless twirl of the airbender and dips her one last time. And it’s too late, Toph realized, that she paid too much attention to the continuous flow of both air and water, to notice the menacing steps outside the cave. “I'd do what it takes to help win this war,” she said determinedly hoping the winds outside the opened side of her shelter would carry it to the spirits and heed her subtle plea. She is, after all, the greatest earthbender in the world.

\---------------------

_“You've taught them how to be free.”_

It was the dead of night, and sleep still hadn’t captured the avatar. He was reliving the events during their dance and the party itself. Waterbending is a dance itself where we give and take. “And I’ve danced it perfectly with her!” he gushes as silently as he could.

If they had much time, he would have made a bigger and fun scheme of dances were most kids could enjoy together. Unbidden, his thoughts went to his sifu. “Maybe then she would have joined, as well. She could’ve taught me the customs of the earth kingdom,” he said to Momo (who found, again, the hidden bag of berries) with a frown on his face. Her compliment hadn’t occurred to him. He is still the kid 100 years ago, who racked his brains out to do something fun, especially with his friends. But the world is still at war, just as he left it before. And he remembered, as Aang slowly succumbed into a sightless dream, how he should have expected this sentiment to this amazing earthbender who waits and listen. Whom seeks freedom but never forgets where she came from. That never stopped her to detach herself from her earthly upbringings. “She'd fit right with the air nation,” he mumbled inaudibly, even with his own ears.


End file.
